Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this. I acknowledge that the numbers in his area are going in the wrong direction. This is true just in his area but in many areas and that is why when we launched the PDS roadmap approximately two weeks ago, one of the pieces within is the tender document for procuring additional supports outside of the HSE to ensure assessments of need are carried out in a timely fashion. The procurement document will be finished tomorrow and will be with me by Monday. At that stage, we will be able to intervene to ensure that assessments of need start to happen more quickly.

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